This thesis examines the use of the right to health as a legal tool for ensuring access to better health care in Africa and as a means of dealing with threats to human health on the continent. The thesis critically assesses some of the key ways in which the right to health has been used at the local, regional and global levels as part of efforts to improve health on the continent. The aim of the thesis is to assess the utility of the right to health in Africa particularly in light of challenges posed by the power of international economic actors, local and international structural constraints and the paradoxical position of the state as both a potential violator and protector of the right. / As this thesis shows, human rights are a powerful and inspirational language for people struggling against degradation, domination and deprivation for the reason that they give expression to the notion that human dignity, equality and freedom ought to be respected and protected. They are also a tool for resisting oppressive power, in addition to providing legitimacy for the redistribution of material resources necessary to meet basic human needs and to alleviate human suffering. The thesis further shows that these benefits of human rights have been enhanced through legalisation, a process through which human rights have been translated from moral or natural rights into legal rights capable of being enforced through judicial and quasi-judicial processes. But legalisation has its drawbacks, as the thesis demonstrates. / The thesis argues that despite the significant advances that have been made, particularly in the last fifteen years, in the elaboration and clarification of the content and justiciability of the right to health, its limitations as a legal right are particularly evident in light of a number of factors. These include the power of international economic actors, local and international structural constraints and the problematic potential of the state as both a protector and violator of the right to health. By examining concrete instances in which efforts have been made to use the right to health in the context of some or of all these factors, the thesis demonstrates the limits and potential of the right as a legal right. The thesis thus argues that a proper account of the utility of the right to health should not overemphasise the legalisation of the right but must include an analysis of the power relations and structural constraints at play at both the international and local levels, which jeopardise good health in Africa in the first place. It is further argued that such an account offers a better understanding of how the moral, legal and political forms of the right to health might be strategically and productively combined in the struggle for better health in Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/270026 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Muriu, Daniel Wanjau |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Restricted Access: Abstract and Citation Only |
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